US007165787B1 (12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 7,165,787 B1 G0 (45) Date of Patent: Jan. 23, 2007 (54) SAFETY DEVICE FOR MOTOR-VEHICLE 4,795,189 A * 1/1989 Vollmer et al. .......... 280/801.1 STEERING COLUMN AND SEAT BELTS 4,823,905 A * 4, 1989 Piech ......................... 180,274 5,054,810 A * 10/1991 Backhaus et al. ... 280,734 (75) Inventor: Giok Djien Go, Pfahlgrabenstr. 45, 5,154,253 A * 10/1992 Vollmer ...................... 180,274 D-65510 Idstein (DE) 6,676,709 B1* 1/2004 de la Asuncion ........... 280,784 6,851,505 B2 * 2/2005 Motozawa et al. ......... 180,274 (73) Assignee: Giok Djien Go (*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this * cited by examiner patent is extended or adjusted under 35 Primary Examiner David R. Dunn U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days. Assistant Examiner—Leonard McCreary, Jr. (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Giok Dien Go (21) Appl. No.: 10/030,199 (57) ABSTRACT (22) PCT Filed: Mar. 10, 1998 (86). PCT No.: PCT/DE98/OO694 As yet heads of belted passengers, when thrown forwards in real-world front collisions, crush into vehicle members or S 371 (c)(1), inflating airbags. (2), (4) Date: Feb. 14, 2004 A safety device is equipped with wires, energy-absorbing, (87) PCT Pub. No.: WO98/.41422 vibration-dampening delimiters, a collapsible upper portion of steering column and a pair of independently operating PCT Pub. Date: Sep. 24, 1998 piston devices. The deflection of at least one piston rod in any front or rear collision is exploited to pre-tension the seat (30) Foreign Application Priority Data belts up to a predetermined length of seat-belt retraction and retract that collapsible upper portion with the steering wheel Mar. 19, 1997 (DE) ................................ 197 11 392 out of the head-injury area. (51) Int. Cl. In order to prevent buckling of longitudinal runners, achieve B62D L/19 (2006.01) the highest efficiency of energy-absorption and lower impact (52) U.S. Cl. ...................................................... 280/777 energy, to which passengers are exposed, a cone-shaped hub (58) Field of Classification Search ................ 280/806, reams, folds and buckles the respective longitudinal runner, 280/777; 180/232, 274 loosely guided by the piston rod, guided by a bearing box. See application file for complete search history. (56) References Cited The delimiters block further movement of seat-belt wire thus preventing strangulation. U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 4,566,555 A * 1/1986 Schlanger ................... 180,274 31 Claims, 8 Drawing Sheets U.S. Patent Jan. 23, 2007 Sheet 1 of 8 US 7,165,787 B1 Fig. 1 7 O 6O. 1 7 3 SO 7 t G 31--- 62 3O.7 c 3O a 2412 YV 22 2 23-113| 1 145 U.S. Patent Jan. 23, 2007 Sheet 2 of 8 US 7,165,787 B1 SSXXXXXX &KXXXX U.S. Patent Jan. 23, 2007 Sheet 3 of 8 US 7,165,787 B1 U.S. Patent Jan. 23, 2007 Sheet 4 of 8 US 7,165,787 B1 U.S. Patent Jan. 23, 2007 Sheet S of 8 US 7,165,787 B1 U.S. Patent Jan. 23, 2007 Sheet 6 of 8 US 7,165,787 B1 ?sa / CZ EHzzZZZZ2772 U.S. Patent Jan. 23, 2007 Sheet 7 of 8 US 7,165,787 B1 U.S. Patent Jan. 23, 2007 Sheet 8 of 8 US 7,165,787 B1 Fig. 19 80c -N. US 7,165,787 B1 1. 2 SAFETY DEVICE FOR MOTOR-VEHICLE In order to pre-tension the seat belts, operated by a belt STEERING COLUMN AND SEAT BELTS pulley driven by an engine, the members of a release device ref. to DE 3536393 A1 are force-locking connected with CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED each other by a wire (pp. 6/col. 37 to 43), which is activated APPLICATIONS in the event of deformation of a vehicle member. With the data n=6000 U/min, radius of belt pulley=10 mm and t=20 ms lower than the deployment time of BMW-Frontairbag by This is related to an international application number PCT/ 22 ms the formula of seat belt-tension yields a retraction of DE 98/00694 (WO 98/.41422, German Patent DE 19711392 20 mm, which is less due to the slip-coefficient of the belt C1) filed Mar. 10, 1998. 10 webbing on the belt pulley and due to its elongation and can BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION never meet the requirement for retraction of from 300 to 350 . 1. Field of the Invention In order to prevent fire the engine is put out of operation by It is an object of the present invention to provide the front interrupting the gasoline-Supply and/or electric circuit. The and/or rear section of vehicle body of motor vehicle with an 15 release device remains ineffective at all. energy-absorbing, vibration-dampening safety device Ref. to WO 90/14253 a front bumper consists of a first to pull the steering wheel out of an area, in which the part, whereto a first row of rollers is transversely attached, head, thrown forwards, Smashes into it or is propelled a second part, whereto a second row of rollers is transversely backwards by an airbag; attached, and a first strip member, arranged between both to damp vibrations and lower pre-tensioning forces, rows of rollers. Both ends of the first strip member are imposed on belted passengers, in association with rigidly attached to a pair of movable rollers, about which a energy absorption and vibration-dampening, second strip member is wounded. Both ends of the second to pre-tension the seat belts (safety belts) up to a prede strip member, rigidly attached to seatbelts of passengers. In termined length of seat-belt retraction and, when a mid-front crash the deflection of the first rollers between impact energy is great, to preserve the predetermined 25 the second rollers causes a lateral movement of both mov length of seat-belt retraction and to release pulling able rollers in opposite direction during which the second wires of the safety device strip member tightens both seat belts to a limited extent. In in any front or rear crash thus ensuring the Survival chance offset-crashes it does not work. either in co-operation with the front airbag or in case of a failure thereof or in operation with airbag. 30 Despite voluminous form the front bumper is unsuited to 2. Description of the Related Art absorb Small energy when colliding into a barrier during It is known in the prior art to provide a motor vehicle with parking. The damage on the device as well as on the front front airbags to softly cushion the head or a safety device to section of the vehicle incurs high repair costs. pre-tension the seat belts in co-operation with the airbags Ref. to DE 4106480 A1 a clamping device consists of a while pulling the steering wheel out of a head-injury area in 35 front tube, fastened to a longitudinal runner, and a rear guide order to avoid head injury. When the head-injury area is tube, which is fastened to the longitudinal runner and the violated in a front crash, the upper part of the body of a front portion of which is loosely guided by the front tube, to front-seated or back-seated passenger belted, more particu loosely guide a wire. Under the premise, that the distance larly slackly belted or unbelted, is propelled forwards into between both tubes is shorter, when the front portion is the steering wheel, windshield, dashboard or backrest of the 40 deformed, the wire pre-tensions seat belts of passengers. In front seat. Recently, conventional safety devices fail to real-world front crashes the device is fouled when ensure Survival chance in the following cases: the portion of the longitudinal runner together with the When crashing into a MB E200 DT on a highway, a device collapses or 42-year old driver of 5-month old BMW 5, which is the front portion with the device is not deformed while the strongly yaw-accelerated, Suffers quadriplegia. 45 front portion of the other longitudinal runner without In a multi-crash of a 5-year old Ford Mondeo into a device is deformed. barrier and, finally, into a bus near the city of Idstein a Ref. to EP 0234003 A1 a safety device, designed for a 34-year old female driver submarines during which an vehicle having mid- or rear-engine, has a pair of longitudinal inflating front airbag, fracturing her front face, forces it rods, located in a pair of longitudinal runners, one ends of into her skull. Falsely deployed side airbags can injure 50 which and the other ends are fastened to the front portions passengers too! of both longitudinal runners and to two first wires, which are In a crash of a 3.5-month old BMW 328i into another connected to an intermediate wire in connection with two BMW the head of a 34-year old driver, thrown for wards, totally deforms the steering wheel. second wires, connected to the belt retractors. In a mid-front The operation of airbags and sensors remains, to a Sur crash the deflection of both front portions of the longitudinal prising extent, unreliable, thus necessitating recall 55 rods causes an elongation of both first wires, which are actions of 6,370 SAAB 9000s, 235,000 Volvo S70s, outwardly deflected upon the contact with guide plates of the C70s and C70s, 150,000 MBs, 616,000 Opels, 16,500 longitudinal runners.